JESUS IS COMING SOON? You hear it in a lot of churches. And not to say "amen" is akin to blasphemy in some minds. Jesus is coming soon! I've said it a lot through the years, and although I believe He may be coming for me pretty soon, I feel it's important to be a part of correcting "pop" theology, so here goes. In the English Bibles with which I am familiar, Jesus is never quoted as saying, "I am coming soon." Instead, it is usually, "I am coming quickly." That's a different idea. In the Greek original, the word is tachu. And yes, both ideas can be conveyed by the word. One can be talking about "when" or "in what manner" with that same word. We're left with a need to interpret. Here is how I interpret all this.
First, Jesus cannot lie. He is the Truth. "Soon" to us means within the next few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or to stretch it to its max, a few years. 2000 years could not be considered "soon" by any mortal. And it was to mortals He said these words. Believers in the "soon" doctrine will be ridiculed for no reason. In fact that very thing has happened and was prophesied by Peter (I Peter 3). We have been saying in every generation, "Jesus is coming SOON." And He didn't come. Now they mock the whole idea of His coming, just as Peter said.
Second, these individual statements about "coming quickly" are not the only way Jesus expressed the thought. He said in Matthew 24 that He will come as the lightning. Suddenly. Quickly. Tachu. The sun sets gradually. That is not tachu. A man returns from a trip gradually. You see his plane, then him as a dot, then a man, then face to face. That is not tachu. And Jesus is not coming that way, as many even in our generation have speculated, that one day we will realize that Jesus is "here", that he slowly has made His Presence felt. No, that is not "tachu". Jesus says, "When I do come, I will come without annnouncement, without delay, as the lightning, as the vultures on a piece of dead meat." That's tachu.
Jesus is near. He is at hand. That's why when He appears, it is suddenly.
Jesus did not tell His disciples, I'm coming back in a few days or months. Instead He gave them clear-cut signs (Matthew 24) to identify the world scene at the time of His coming. Then He told them He had no clue when He would return. That is, the Father had not revealed to Him the time of Earth's history when the signs would all be fulfilled. But the generation that lives at that time will know...
Both Paul and Jesus (II Thessalonians 2 and Matthew 24) are clear: Don't let anyone deceive you. I'm not coming back until... (We'll talk about the signs some other time). But when He does come, it will be quickly. And remember that Jesus told them about signs when they asked when He would be returning.
Why such a teaching? Why tell us several times He is coming quickly? So that believers through the years will not be led astray into following false Messiahs who will appear here and there, take out ads in newspapers, start communities, all the while trying to convince people they are God's promised One. No, when Jesus comes, it is tachu. There'll be no questions asked or answers needed.
The "when" of His coming we must discuss sometime. The "how" is certainly "quickly."
For more insight on this topic, see my "imminence" study here on Sermonaudio.
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